Pitchfork

Well, this is it, folks. As the legendary Mission of Burma made their way down the West Coast on a week-long trek, guitarist Roger Miller shared his tour diary with Pitchfork. We laughed, we cried, we got naked. And now it's all over.

Enjoy Roger's final entry, and stay tuned to Pitchfork for all future Burma news.

Read part ten here.
Read part nine here.
Read part eight here.
Read part six here.
Read part five here.
Read part four here.
Read part three here.
Read part two here.
Read part one here.

Today's NY Times headlines: "Spy Agencies Say Iraq War Worsens Terrorism Threat." Amazing that it took so long for that to be a headline. Anyone with half a brain knows the following equation: "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction." Anyone who does not know this is not fit to rule a country.

Topic-- Voting: Some people think it's unhip to vote. If so, I am a full-on unhipster. If you pay any taxes at all, I believe you have a conceptual duty to at least try to steer your financial donation towards something you might actually believe in, or that at least doesn't make you ashamed (see above paragraph). Just because it's likely that your candidate will not win is not enough reason not to vote: if we had used that rationale, Burma would never have formed-- we were clearly an "against all odds" band right from the start. In my opinion, only individuals who live their lives as true anarchists can skip voting with a clear conscience. (NOTE: The opinions expressed in this paragraph are the writer's alone, and are not intended to represent the band or the U.S. government).

Said goodbye to Bob last night, since he was leaving for Chicago early this morning. Said goodbye to Sharon today after she dropped us off at the airport. Now the rest of us sit in the incredibly calm, luxurious environs of the San Diego airport. Waitresses stop by and offer us pineapple wedges, avocado with artichoke dip, fine wines from the Sonoma Valley. Highly trained chimpanzees offer to massage our feet. Using an elaborate sign language (developed by Jane Goodall's protégé) we indicate our gratefulness for the offer, but we are so physically at peace that there is no need to "gild the lily".

Interesting how our recent shows are filled with younger people. (Of course we have nothing against older people-- some of our best friends are older people). When we first started playing again, it was mostly people who had "seen us in the day" or had just missed us. As that audience backed off a bit (yeah, we saw 'em-- they were pretty good, but I got a life to live), we wondered if a new audience would take its place. Kind of amazing that it actually happened. It seems to be The Obliterati that is doing this, too. ONoffON was kind of our "novelty record"-- look, they did this after 20 years!-- but our audience didn't increase based on that record. In fact, it seemed to continue its slow downward slip. But with The Obliterati, things are actually climbing back up (yeah, this is a highly honed career move).

At any rate, it's kind of bizarre how well we get along in Burma. We're all ready to go back home, though. Well, for me home is three days, then off with Alloy for a two-and-a-half week Midwest tour. That's the way of my world.

This is where I live-- in the blank spots of a wall

The End